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Teaching Community: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur: An Introduction to Effectuation
14 October, 2026 @ 10:00 – 11:30 EDT
What if entrepreneurial success isn’t about who you are, but how you think?
Most entrepreneurship education still centers on writing detailed business plans: define the opportunity, forecast the market, secure funding, and execute. Effectuation offers a different model grounded in how expert entrepreneurs actually operate. Rather than starting with a fixed goal and planning backward, expert entrepreneurs start with what they have—their skills, networks, and resources—and take small actions to see what possibilities emerge. They form partnerships early to co-create the venture’s direction, treat setbacks as information rather than failure, and let their goals evolve as they learn. Instead of waiting for the perfect moment or opportunity, entrepreneurs focus on what they can build right now.
Why it matters for educators
Around the world, effectuation is becoming a core framework for entrepreneurship education because it teaches students how expert entrepreneurs actually think. In this second Teaching Community webinar, Saras Sarasvathy, the creator of effectuation theory, will explore how to teach effectuation in the classroom. By framing entrepreneurship as a learnable process rather than an innate talent, educators will gain the skills to teach their students to build enduring ventures, develop social enterprises that tackle complex challenges, and forge entrepreneurial careers in a world being reshaped by AI.
Details
AOM’s Teaching Community presents this second webinar in its fall 2026 series in partnership with the Entrepreneurship Division. To learn more about teaching at AOM, visit aom.org/teaching.
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2026 | 10:00–11:30 AM EDT / 3:00-4:30 PM BST
Speakers
Dr. Saras Sarasvathy is a Professor Emerita at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. She is a leading scholar of entrepreneurial expertise and the creator of effectuation theory. Dr. Indu Khurana is the Chair of the ENT Division Teaching Committee and Associate Professor of Economics and Business at Hampden-Sydney College.
